RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)


  • Authoritarianism Was Defeated in Hungary

    Source: Exiled Policy
    by Jason Pye

    “Orbán’s loss doesn’t mean the authoritarian impulse is spent in Hungary or anywhere else. Magyar is a former Fidesz insider, and the system Orbán built doesn’t disappear the morning after an election. Brussels and the new Magyar government shouldn’t underestimate the resistance of the Orbán system and its entrenched members across government institutions. The Kremlin loses an important ally inside the EU. Ukraine may finally see Hungary’s veto on EU support lifted. These are real consequences worth acknowledging. All this said, the lesson here isn’t really about Hungary. It’s about what happens when a population finally gets tired of being told the looting is governance and the propaganda is journalism.” (04/15/26)

    https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/authoritarianism-was-defeated-in

  • Orban Was Bad, Even Though We Don’t Have A Perfect Word For His Badness

    Source: Astral Codex Ten
    by Scott Alexander

    “Every country, from the best to the worst, has a ruling party that can (and does) try some undemocratic things, but is too afraid to try others. Democracy versus dictatorship is a spectrum, not a binary choice. … But some of the people demanding that Orban critics apologize don’t seem to just be mincing words. They seem to be implicitly denying the spectrum concept of democratic backsliding at all, arguing that if it’s possible to lose an election, past concerns must have been misplaced and retroactively embarrassing for the concern-holder.” (04/15/26)

    https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/orban-was-bad-even-though-we-dont

  • JD Vance’s Devil-May-Care Attitude Is UnAmerican and UnCatholic

    Source: The UnPopulist
    by Thomas D Howes

    “Elie Wiesel is often credited with the observation that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. Indifference is clearly not morally neutral. To respond with indifference when love and concern are due is a sign that something has gone wrong — whether it’s a voluntary fault and thus immoral, or something involuntary and inculpable. But indifference in such cases is never something to praise or, worse, advocate for. Yet that is just what Vance consistently does. He is not alone in this. A growing current on the right has explicitly reframed indifference as a virtue — denouncing empathy toward immigrants, refugees, and foreign peoples as ‘suicidal,’ manipulative, or simply naive.” (04/15/26)

    https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/jd-vances-devil-may-care-attitude

  • Kentucky General Assembly failed to deliver on housing affordability

    Source: Bluegrass Institute
    by Caleb O Brown

    “Kentucky’s next generation deserved better from this legislative session. For two years, Kentucky’s Housing Task Force built a record, heard from builders, experts, local officials, and families struggling to afford a place to live. Ultimately, the task force embraced recommendations advanced by the Bluegrass Institute last year. … Legislation that was one concurrence away from final passage would have altered the housing marketplace to make homes more affordable, enhance Kentuckians’ property rights, clear away needless regulatory barriers, and give developers greater confidence to undertake projects. Kentucky lawmakers couldn’t get the job done, and that failure carries real consequences for young people across our commonwealth.” (04/15/26)

    https://www.bluegrassinstitute.org/kentucky-general-assembly-failed-to-deliver-on-housing-affordability/

  • Another Trillion Racks Up for the National Debt

    Source: Independent Institute
    by Craig Eyermann

    “The U.S. government’s total public debt outstanding is on the verge of permanently surpassing $39 trillion. In truth, it already has, first breaching it on March 17, 2026. Since then, it’s bounced around that level, sometimes over, sometimes under. This situation won’t last. Soon, the U.S. government will borrow even more money to support its excessive spending. When it does, it will leave $39 trillion in the rear-view mirror, probably for good.” (04/15/26)

    https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/15/another-trillion-national-debt/